FCC To Slap VA TVer With $325K Fine - 3/24 - The Federal Communications Commission plans to issue what it says will be the highest fine ever against a TV station for a single incident of airing indecent content, slapping a $325,000 penalty against a Roanoke TV station for airing a sexually explicit video clip of an adult film website during a news broadcast. The planned fine against Channel 7/WDBJ comes in response to complaints over the station's July 12, 2012, newscast that featured a report on a former adult film star who had joined a local volunteer rescue squad. So reports Variety.....

3 Dumps Kay Norred - 3/17 - Kay Norred, the news director for the past seven years at Gray Television's Channel 3/WHSV in Harrisonburg, got pink slipped Monday. Before joining the Shenandoah Valley ABC affiliate in 2008, she worked at WTSP-TV in Tampa, WWSB-TV in Sarasota, WTXL-TV in Tallahassee, and WEAR-TV in Pensacola.....

LaCascio To Adams On Eastern Shore - 3/11 - Phil LaCascio, who once programmed CBS Radio's now-defunct DC area classic rocker, WARW, Arrow 94.7, will be the Eastern Shore market manager for Adams Radio, which is acquiring six stations and two translators from Great Scott Broadcasting in the Salisbury-Ocean City-Rehoboth Beach area. According to Radio Insight, Adams will also be heavily reshaping the formats at rocker WZBH, rhythmic contemporary WOCQ, classic rocker WGBG, and country WKHI, with several new stations to be debuted.....

WGMD Fires Host Over Muslim Remarks - 3/7 - Jake Smith, a host at Rehoboth Beach talker WGMD, 92.7, has been fired after saying on air that "as far as I'm concerned, not every Muslim is guilty, but every Muslim is suspect" of sympathizing with Islamic extremists. Smith's comments came during verbal sparring with a caller that aired during the live "Mike And Jake In The Morning" show February 20 on the Eastern Shore station. According to USA Today, the incident led to his dismissal from the station that same day, Smith said in an interview, although word of that dismissal is just now leaking out.....

WTJU To Get Richmond Relay - 1/29 - The University Of Virginia does a lease deal with Ashland VA's talk/bluegrass WHAN, 1430 AM, and its FM translator at 102.9, to simulcast the programming of the school's WTJU, 91.1 from Charlottesville into the Richmond area. WTJU features classical, jazz, rock, and talk.....

WBOC's Website Hacked - 1/6 - Salisbury MD's Channel 16/WBOC says its wboc.com website has been "hacked" by a group "posting pro-extreme Islamic messages on the website," according to Delmarva news talker WGMD. "We have managed to take back control of WBOC.com," station manager Craig Jahelka told WGMD News. "We have contacted Twitter to let them know that our account has been hacked, but they haven't done anything yet." The postings to the site were from a group calling itself the CyberCaliphate, which it says has infiltrated other databases across the country. WBOC says they have the situation under control and they are evaluating how to proceed with site security, WGMD adds.....

WKHK Tops Richmond Radio Ratings - 1/6 - Country WKHK tops the latest batch of Richmond radio ratings. More from Tom Taylor Now.....

Country Coming To Richmond's 98.9 & 100.3 - 10/17 - From Tom Taylor Now: In Richmond, Alpha bets big on country, backing away from variety hits on the collection of less-than-blaster-size signals it acquired earlier this year along with Main Line Broadcasting. Alpha Media will migrate its “Wolf” country format up to two new frequencies. So the Wolf is leaving its signal at 93.1 licensed to Ettrick, southwest of Richmond. The new Wolf #1 will be at 98.9, licensed to Midlothian, closer to Richmond’s core. That bumps off a home-made variety hits format Main Line had been doing under the name of “Liberty,” with call letters of WWLB. The new Wolf signal #2 will be at 100.3. That’s south-of-Richmond WARV, licensed to Petersburg. As the song goes, breaking up may not be so hard to do, with Alpha breaking up a simulcast of 100.3 with classic hits “Big Oldies 107.3” WBBT-FM Powhatan, west of Richmond. So how about the current Wolf’s lair of 93.1, that carries calls of WLFV? That could be the other part of a pincer move by Alpha – a classic country station branded as “Hank.” The target is SummitMedia’s country “K95”.....

WKJS/WKJM Tops Richmond - 10/8 - A glittering 10.5 share is the largest since the Spring 2011 book for Radio One’s urban AC “Kiss” WKJS/WKJM, and it’s enough to propel Kiss into the #1 spot in Richmond. So reports Tom Taylor Now.....

Adams Picks Up Great Scott Stations - 9/19 - Great Scott Broadcasting has agreed to sell the majority of its radio cluster in the Salisbury area to Adams Radio. The acquisition includes WGBG-FM and WJWK-AM, both licensed to Seaford, WJWL-AM and WZBH-FM, both licensed to Georgetown, WKHI-FM licensed to Fruitland, and WOCQ-FM licensed to Berlin. More at delmarvanow.com.....

WWDE Restores "2WD" Branding - 8/26 - Norfolk's WWDE restores its "2WD" branding, after a year and a half of calling itself “The New 101.3.” Entercom's adult contemporary station did it quietly, says VARTV - and "you can't tell from their FB/Twitter pages".....

WKCY Tops Harrisonburg - 8/13 - Clear Channel's country WKCY tops the latest batch of radio ratings in Harrisonburg VA, which manages to increase its overall share from 12.5 to 14.4. In a distant second place, at 9.9, is Gamma's classic country WSIG. VerStandig's contemporary hit WQPO places third with a 9.0 share. And, VerStandig news talker WSVA takes fourth with a 7.2 share.....

WKVL Tops Norfolk - 8/8 - Tom Taylor Now has the latest radio ratings for Norfolk, where urban contemporary WKVL tops the heap.....

Stevens Named ND At 13 - 8/4 - Len Stevens, the primary news anchor at Sinclair's just-acquired Channel 13/WSET in Lynchburg, has been promoted to news director. He replaces Bob Cashen, who was hired last October but left after four months.....

Eastern Shore: CC Drops Comedy For Sports On 960 - 8/4 - Tom Taylor Now tells us that, in the Salisbury-Ocean City market, Clear Channel is moving sports talk from WJDY, 1470 AM, to the former "Comedy 960" WTGM. The new 960 AM will be built around Fox Sports Radio, plus University Of Maryland sports and NBA Washington Wizards baseball. And at WJDY? It's less clear what's happening there, although it's adding Bloomberg Business News in mornings, as of today.....

WSLC Tops Roanoke - 7/29 - The latest Roanoke-Lynchburg radio ratings courtesy of Tom Taylor Now: Thirteen #1 finishes in a row for the Mel Wheeler group’s “Star Country” WSLC, 11.8-11.4-13.5. With its second-largest share in 14 years doing country, it nearly doubles the share of urban AC sister WVBE-AM/FM, 9.3-6.9-7.7. Then comes another Wheeler property, AC “Q99” WSLQ, 8.0-8.4-7.1. Clear Channel’s rock WROV roams in its range, 7.3-6.7-7.0. The two talk-based stations showing in the book are Wheeler’s talk WFIR (plus FM translator), 3.8.2.4-3.0. Centennial is the third subscribing entity here, with talk WLNI, 3.2-1.8-1.2. You think they’re ready for University of Virginia football at WLNI? On the WLINI website, there’s a second-by-second countdown clock to kickoff of the first game.....

WKHK Tops Richmond - 7/17 - Analysis of the Richmond summer 2014 radio ratings from Tom Taylor Now: Country “K95” racks up its fourth straight quarterly win, though this time, it’s does so by virtue of a tie. SummitMedia’s WKHK pulled a 9.6 share last Fall, a 9.3 in this year’s Winter book, and now an 8.9 share, with age 12+ AQH. Radio One’s urban AC “Kiss” WKJS/WKJM is right there with K95, 9.6-8.6-8.9. There’s also a tie at the #3 spot, between Clear Channel’s urban “Beat” WBTJ (9.0-6.4-7.1) and sister AC “Lite 98” WTVR, 7.6-6.3-7.1. And an unusual sight around Alpha Media’s WURV and its HD2 signal, which feeds a translator. Rhythmic “Hot 106.1,” which is WURV HD2 plus the translator, finishes a tenth of a share better than its full-power sister. “Hot” rises 2.0-2.5-3.0, while hot AC WURV is steady, 2.3-3.0-2.9. Among the stations we can see – Nielsen’s “subscriber only” policy only lets us see the shares of stations that subscribe – Clear Channel’s talk WRVA and its translator at 98.5 are seventh, 5.3-4.8-4.6. Nielsen’s Spring book survey period ran March 27 through June 18, and all shares in this section are age 12+.....

WVKL Tops Norfolk - 6/13 - Analysis of the Norfolk May radio ratings from Tom Taylor Now: Entercom’s urban WVKL holds sway with its largest PPM share yet, 12.0-11.4-12.2. Though here’s a reminder about the “subscriber only” policy, which prohibits us from seeing Saga stations such as rock WNOR. Clear Channel’s urban WOWI holds in its range, 7.5-6.8-7.2. Then there’s Max Media’s classic hits “Wave” WVBW, 5.4-5.2-5.9. Country sister “Eagle” WGH-FM gains altitude, 4.4-4.6-5.4. In talk, Sinclair Telecable’s talk WNIS is off 3.2-2.9-2.5. Sister WTAR, the former “Comedy 850” and now a mixture of talk and sports, chalks up another 0.4 share. The cume crown is held by Entercom’s rhythmic “WNVZ at 404,400. “Z104” ranks fifth in AQH.....

Ralph Wimmer To Retire - 6/9 - Ralph Wimmer says he's hanging up the headphones. The radio vet, who is a 1975 graduate of Harrisonburg's James Madison University, exited Atlanta's WKHX and WYAY in 2009, where he was doing swing work while also doing voice work. "After over 40 years working in and around radio, I have decided the time has come for me to retire," he tells allacess.com. His career stops, over the years have included Harrisonburg's WHBG, Norfolk's WGH and WQRK, and Baltimore's WMAR-FM.....

FCC Reverses WEMC Ruling - 6/5 - From Tom Taylor Now: Timing is everything, says the FCC – reversing a decision it made in the Harrisonburg, Virginia market three years ago. You don’t see this often, but the agency says “we find that Stu-Comm has shown a material error” in the original grant to let Eastern Mennonite University upgrade WEMC (91.7) from Class A to Class B. The problem is that Eastern Mennonite failed to finish building before the construction permit expired, then “re-filed” a minor change application at 3am the morning of the expiration. You’d think that would be the logical thing to do, right? Stu-Comm argued that the Commission usually doesn’t let you re-file until the day after a CP expires. Its WNRN Charlottesville (91.9) seized the fleeting opportunity and filed to upgrade, the very next day. Initially, the FCC granted the re-filed app by WEMC – but Stu-Comm’s argument finally pays off and Eastern Mennonite’s grant is rescinded and returned to “pending status”.....

Richmond's 100.9 Goes "Easy" Oldies - 5/27 - From Tom Taylor Now: Richmond’s vacant 100.9 goes “Easy,” playing easy oldies. SummitMedia already does the format in Birmingham on “Easy 97.3” WEZZ-FM and has surely watched its success in Miami, where Cox has thrived with “Easy 93.1” WFEZ. In Richmond, Summit previously offloaded the CHR “Hot” format from 100.9, a Class B1 licensed to Lakeside Virginia, up to 106.1, which is an HD Radio-fed translator. We didn’t have to wait long for the permanent new format at 100.9, which probably will shed the WHTI calls for something, well, easier. Ironically, Red Zebra operates a station in Richmond named “WZEZ” – but it’s an all-sports station licensed to Goochland.....

Hot 100.9 Moves To 106.1 - 5/8 - From radioinsight.com:
The second new translator to sign-on in Richmond this week will soon become the new home for contemporary hits Hot 100.9, WHTI, Richmond. Radio Assist Ministry's 106.1 W291CL Richmond has launched rebroadcasting Summit Media’s 103.7 WURV-HD2 and the programming of what is currently Hot 100.9. Summit has registered Hot1061Radio.com, which is already redirecting to WHTI's website. W291CL is licensed to operate with 250-watts covering Richmond and its adjacent suburbs. WHTI currently ranks 13th in the Richmond market with a 2.5 share as of the winter ratings. No indications yet on what will replace the contemporary hits format on 100.9.....

Hirsbrunner Returns To WDBJ - 5/8 - Leo Hirsbrunner, a meteorologist at Roanoke's Channel 7/WDBJ, has returned to work after a six-month medical leave. He was forced off the air in October because of a serious case of vertigo.....